A Buffet of Kids' Books

While my mother “slaved over a hot stove” (if only I had a quarter for every time I heard that phrase as a child), I waited alongside Anne Frank as she held onto hope in a world gone mad, crossed the great chasm of societal classes in 19th century London with a boy named Oliver Twist, and went to the county fair with an arachnid named Charlotte and a radiant swine named Wilbur. 

Reading was such a delicious activity that the invitation to come to the dinner table was not enough to return me to the here-and-now. Only the touch of my mother’s hand on my shoulder would draw my nose out of my book and bring my senses back to our house on Cherry Avenue.

I was not just a voracious reader, I was an early reader. By kindergarten, I was reading the works of an emerging author named Dr. Seuss (yes, I am that old).  While most of my classmates systematically plodded through Fun With Dick and Jane, I devoured Black Beauty and the Bobbsey Twins series.   

As a parent, I tried to carve out family reading time. Unfortunately, Dr. Seuss often gave way to Dr. Spock, and Go, Dog, Go became “Go, Mom, go!”  But I found special times to share favorite books. I remember a family camping trip when a woman in the next campsite confided that she was listening in as I read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to our daughter before bed, and that she was disappointed we would not finish before the week ended. I was, too.  

And now I am blessed to have the opportunity to read to our grandchildren. With “” coming to an end, I decided survey my friends and to research best seller lists to get some ideas for books to purchase for grandkid visits.

There are superstar books that make my friends’ lists and crack the Top-25 Best Sellers lists: Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny, and a buffet of choices by Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein.  

Julie Runge says Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse A Cookie was “the story of our lives.”  Our two-year-old granddaughter Emma's book-of-the-month is the similarly-styled If You Give a Moose a Muffin.  She sleeps with the book, which she asks to read nearly every evening.  

A handful of friends expressed sadness that their favorite preteen series, including Amelia Bedelia, Little House on the Prairie and Pippi Longstocking, are no longer regular fare in schools, as the ubiquitous Harry Potter hogs the bookshelves. Paul Grizzell, the lone man to weigh in, says his favorite is the classic Wind in the Willows.   

Several of my grandma friends ooze enthusiasm for their choices.

—Jean Roemer says: “The George and Martha books. I love their friendship of acceptance.” 

—Jane Thiegs couldn't choose just one. “I still love Winnie the Pooh originals. And Shel Silverstein and Seuss and Old Turtle and Raggedy Ann's Magical Wish and SOOO many others...”  (I know why Jane and I are good friends.) 

—And my sister Diana Hamrick and I share love for The Velveteen Rabbit, a read-aloud favorite from our childhood.  

Some of my friends who work with children provide tantalizing suggestions for young readers. Nancy Kapernick recommends The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear. (For the uninitiated she says, "Yes, that is one title.")  Nanette Nielssen dishes on the Captain Underpants and Horrible Harry books.  Nanny Rebecca Petrich favors Christina Katerina and the Box.   

Toddler mom Jennifer Spreigel says son Xander loves Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama series (starting with Llama Llama Red Pajama), preschool mom Rebecca Watters provided a link to the wonderful East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Mercer Mayer, based on a Norwegian folk tale. Tina Strehlau suggested From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Koningsburg.  I have put all three of these books in my shopping cart.

The most mentioned book among my friends is one of the sweetest offerings I have ever read: Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. 

And the best-selling young children's book of all time?  It was one of the Little Golden Books (remember those?): The Poky Little Puppy, by Janet Sebring Lowrey, published in 1942, about a puppy that had to go to bed without dessert. 

But (spoiler alert ahead), do not fret.

As with most kids' books, it has a happy ending.